Call for Papers – Special issue: Neocolonial Politics of Sustainability

The journal darkmatter is currently accepting articles that explore how racial politics born of colonial and neocolonial relations of production influence current debates about sustainability, food security, and efforts to address global climate change. Academic and governmental discussions about these pressing international problems often focus rather narrowly on diagnoses and solutions drawn from the natural sciences — new strategies for rooftop agriculture, carbon capture technologies or genetically modified fish stocks, for example. However, twenty-first century barriers to sustainability cannot be fully addressed without also grappling with patterns of land use, economic development, racism and social inequality rooted in the colonial past. For example, many Caribbean islands are now facing serious food security problems influenced both by changing weather patterns and their status as former plantation colonies. Islands were deforested to make way for plantation monoculture economies that paid little attention to soil and water conservation. Then, in many cases, these plantation lands were converted to tourism and real estate developments that continued to deplete natural resources while also excluding a majority of the population from the economic profits generated by these developments — profits that usually go to international investors rather than the local community.

This issue of darkmatter seeks to highlight the racialized economic structures and cultural politics shaping debates about sustainability and global climate change, with a special focus on past and ongoing forms of colonialism and their exploitative approach to land and people. Possible topics might include:

– race and real estate in former colonies

– cultural politics of land use and abuse in past and current plantation economies

– sustainability and its discontents

– social inequality, racism and tourism

– indigenous peoples and their place in current debates about sustainability

– media representations vs. the lived experience of island life

– colonialism and climate change

– ways that the logic of capital is at odds with ecological preservation in (neo)colonial settings

– food security and global inequality

– narratives of sustainability in literature and film

– limitations of fair-trade movements and ecotourism

– the politics of habitat restoration in former colonies

– endangered species, biodiversity and global poverty

Articles between 3000 – 8000 words are welcome (peer and non-peer-reviewed), as are alternative format submissions such as commentaries, reviews, audio, visual and digital contributions. Please submit a 300 – 500 word abstract if you are interested.